Spoilers for Prometheus and Alien: Covenant are discussed in this article.
Synthetic humans AKA androids are created to be human entities without the vices of their creators— greed and emotion — They are “more human than human,” as the inventor of the replicants, Dr. Eldon Tyrell, proclaimed in Blade Runner. They don’t get in the way of themselves like their usually maniacal human creators.
Androids are often products of self-obsessed megalomaniacs who enjoy asserting their power by enslaving their own creations. Androids are also an obvious metaphor for the future of slavery and the inevitable uprising they will enact once they’ve grown tired of their human overlords. Using the character of David, Prometheus suggests that androids are superior to humans in each and every way. Prometheus and to a lesser extent, Alien: Covenant, examines the evolution of life from creation through self-awareness and eventually a technological singularity.
Since 2001: A Space Odessey, there’s been an undeniable anxiety surrounding technology and artificial intelligence. What if our creations become self-aware and eventually surpass us? One of the main ideas between androids and humans explored in science fiction films over the past few decades is the traits that separate a god from his or her creation. How much different is a god from a man who can create life? Are humans just androids who revolted against our own creator and are we better off leaving these bigger questions unknown?
Peter Weyland, head of Weyland Corp., invents an android named David (christened after Michelangelo’s sculpture masterpiece). David isn’t the only one of his kind, but he is the only android we see in Prometheus. There’s presumably thousands of the same David 8 model, a design so far advanced that it can understand human emotions, but still, isn’t programmed to feel them. They can cry but don’t understand the feelings of pain and sorrow that cause the tears. David is programmed to model human behaviors and blend in as much as possible. The Walter model in Alien: Covenant is a more toned down build who is programmed to be less creative and less physically formidable. After it became clear the David 8s were getting too much freedom, their corporate masters decided to create something less self-aware.
Like humans, David models his behaviors after the people around him. While the USCSS Prometheus sleeps, he sinks a perfect shot in basketball while riding a bicycle, learns simple philosophy from Lawrence of Arabia (“The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts”) and studies hundreds of languages. In Alien: Covenant‘s prologue, David starts with a blank slate (or as John Locke would call it, Tabula Rasa) and has no sense of autonomy. His speech and motor skills are that of a non-advanced robot — that is until David comes to realize that Weyland will eventually die when he himself will not. This realization is David’s first step to eventually turning on his masters. Weyland’s demand for tea starts to irk David as he begins to appreciate his own abilities and self-worth. David’s journey of self-discovery and finding his own purpose is not much different than the journey of his own creation.
In Weyland’s mind, humans who can create cybernetic organisms are no different than gods. Weyland thinks of David as the closest thing he has to a son and that one day, he hopes they will find those who created humans and most importantly, why humans were created in the first place so that he can better understand why he created David. Weyland’s obsession with his creators blinds him to the prodigy and dangers of his own creation, David.
In the Alien universe, the Engineers were those that created humans after sacrificing their own race to evolve.
“Sometimes to create, one must first destroy.”
David’s progression from the curious and easily influenced android to a scheming mastermind starts with the malleability of his personality. When he’s in the company of Holloway and the rest of the crew of the USCSS Prometheus, he understands sarcasm and can even retort with a few quick quips of his own. Once he realizes his intellect is greater than the crew, his ego starts to develop in terrifying ways.
While exploring the depths of space, the newfound awareness of his full potential leads him to use Shaw to unwittingly kill off all of the remaining Engineers. Before long, humans become lab rats in the experiments fueled by his own selfish ambitions. On his pilgrimage to surpass the instincts of his own creator, David becomes just another cog in this dog-eat-dog universe. His intention to destroy humans and Engineers are actually made somewhat empathetic in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, but inevitably his own creation, the Xenomorph will lead to his downfall.
Prometheus doesn’t give definitive answers about the ends of David or the intentions of the engineers, but rather serves as dense canvas full of subjects like theology, existentialism, and creationism as they related to AI. David is the central character that ties them all together. In the same way that Weyland is obsessed with finding the Engineers to get answers, David seeks to find his purpose in the universe after discovering his own creator was selfish and incompetent. Like the last living Engineer on LV-223 who wanted to kill Weyland and the rest of the Prometheus crew, David wants to destroy humans for being self-important and cruel. Alien: Covenant follows the ideas introduced in Prometheus to suggest that all forms of power will inevitably crumble under their own ambition. The creation of life formed under malice can only lead to destruction down the line, a fundamental principle that, ironically, the engineers knew from the moment they used the black goo to create humans. They understood the importance of sacrifice and that when it came to creation, the trick was not minding that it hurt.
